Friday, December 31, 2010

Director of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano is in Afghanistan to discuss border security to help protect that nation from militants and drug smugglers. I say, the Afghan border better never be more secure than our own borders here in the United States of America while our troops are there. Otherwise, we have a situation where we will bbe securing the border of another country better than our own. Just another incredible outrage from the administration. Imagine, HOMELAND security actually working, for years, to secure the Afghan border while leaving our own wide border open.

KABUL, Afghanistan—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan today at approximately 7:42 a.m. AFT along with six additional DHS customs and border security officials who will join DHS personnel already deployed in the region to provide civilian assistance to local security officials.

While in Afghanistan, Secretary Napolitano will meet with senior U.S. and Afghan officials—including Afghan ministers as well as border security experts from DHS and other civilians from across the U.S. government—to discuss progress being made in securing the region. She will also spend New Year’s Eve with the military men and women serving their country on the front lines to combat terrorism and bring peace and stability to the region.

“For several years, the Department of Homeland Security has been contributing personnel to help bolster security in Afghanistan,” said Secretary Napolitano. “In the last twelve months, DHS has expanded its effort here in support of President Obama’s policy of civilian engagement. Today, I arrived in Kabul with six additional border security and customs officers who will join our ongoing efforts to advise and assist our Afghan counterparts on customs and border control. It is an honor to meet with our dedicated military and civilian men and women who are helping to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, and I thank them for their continued efforts and sacrifices here to make the American homeland safer and more secure.”

Following her departure from Afghanistan, Secretary Napolitano will continue to Qatar on Jan. 2; Israel on Jan. 3-5; and Belgium on Jan. 5-6 to meet with her counterparts and discuss international efforts to ensure the security of our global aviation and supply chain systems against threats of terrorism and transnational crime, while facilitating the flow of legitimate travel and commerce. More details will be provided once they are finalized.

On Monday morning, state troopers pulled over a van with a broken windshield on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and discovered 10 illegal aliens inside the vehicle. According to Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Anthony Deluca, three of the illegal aliens escaped during the traffic stop but were captured a short time later.

The nine Salvadoran nationals and one Honduran were all turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The illegal aliens were on their way from Maryland to work on a taxpayer-funded housing project in Jeannette, PA.

The federal project is being built by Homes Build Hope, a subsidiary of AdelphoiUSA.

Chad Ruffner, executive director of Homes Build Hope, told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the workers were hired by a subcontractor, in this case, O.C. Cluss of Uniontown.

Ruffner said: “That's their crew. They check their papers every day. I've seen them checking in. They do that every day. I've seen them check them off.”

Ruffner then shifted the responsibility to the general contractor, Steve Catranel Construction of Wilkins, which is supposed to check workers’ driver's licenses and other documents to verify their identities.

But, Catranel claims that he does not know the identities of the illegal aliens who were detained, and therefore cannot verify whether or not they were working on the Jeannette project.

Catranel did say: “We thought we had addressed the issue so it wouldn't be an issue. I don't know what else we can do. We have names, photos and sign-in sheets."

The contractor continued: “The guys on the job are very good carpenters. They work.”

O.C. Cluss officials have not commented on this matter.

As we have seen so many times, those who hire illegal aliens simply pass the buck of responsibility to everyone, but themselves.

With 1 in 5 Americans out of work, we simply cannot afford to allow one job go to an illegal alien. The issue of illegal immigration is now a fight for the survival of the American family.

As I always say…For every illegal alien with a job, there is an American without one.

Last month, 14 illegal aliens were arrested in Panama City, Florida, all of whom had been working on a federally-funded construction project, where U.S. workers had actually been turned away. Read that story here.

It gets alot worse. Not only are they hiring illegals for Federal projects, but they are turning Americans away for the jobs while unemployment reaches to levels not seen in decades.

On Tuesday, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen announced that his deputies arrested 14 illegal aliens who had been working at a taxpayer-funded construction site on the corner of 11tth Street and Sherman Avenue in Panama City.

Deputies stopped a truck being driven erratically just after it left the construction site, when they discovered the driver had a suspended license, he admitted to being in the country illegally. The driver also told the deputies that he lived with 16 other illegal aliens in two nearby homes.

When Bay County deputies arrived at the houses, five people crawled out of a window, but were caught a short time later. The rest surrendered without incident and were processed into the ICE 287g program. Fourteen illegal aliens were arrested, six of whom were charged with criminal use of personal information for using stolen Social Security numbers.

All fourteen illegal aliens were brought in from Atlanta by a contractor, specifically to work on the Panama Commons public housing project being built at the corner of 11th Street and Sherman Avenue.

Sheriff McKeithen told reporters: “I have received information that within the last 24 hours local construction workers have been to this particular construction site seeking work and were denied employment. It is a shame that a multi-million dollar site is being constructed in Bay County where they are not only hiring out of state contractors but are hiring illegal aliens. The local economy will only improve when locals start getting jobs. We are continuing this investigation to determine if any other charges are applicable.”

Harden Contracting, the firm building the housing project, has blamed a sub-contractor called "Spurs" out of Atlanta for employing the illegal aliens.

Fed up with excuses, Sheriff McKeithen said: “Someone needs to take responsibility here that’s in charge of these major jobs like this. I just think that there are some steps that need to be taken here to make sure that we hire locals.”

All of the illegal aliens have been turned over the ICE for deportation.

As I always say…For every illegal alien with a job, there is an American without one.

With U.S. unemployment now at depression levels, we simply can no longer tolerate an illegal alien population numbering in the tens of millions.

So, tell me. If they were trying to destroy us, what exactly would they be doing differently? For the record, "they" are Obama, Napolitano (who I think is just too stupid, greedy, and ambitious to be at the top to get what's going on), the Clintons... the whole lot of them.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

It may be obvious by the links to my photo albums that I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan - seriously, it's a real geek who goes on a Lord of the Rings Movie Location Tour (with Red Carpet Tours). Before my elementary school teacher introduced The Lord of the Rings, he introduced The Hobbit. Before that, The Chronicles of Narnia. And I discovered Harry Potter in the last couple of years. The most recent movie for these stories is The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. Being the geeky fangirl that I am, I like to watch the extra stuff and the interviews and such. In doing so, I came across something very interesting. Very interesting indeed here.

The filming of The Voyage of The Dawn Treader was delayed and moved due to the Mexican Drug War. They were to film at Rosarita Studios (built for Titanic and used for Master and Commander). Unfortunately, the drug war interfered and they moved to safer havens in Australia. The violence of the drug war damages more than just the border areas or limited locales within Mexico. Mexico is our neighbor and I want them to be prosperous, secure, and happy - a state of being which would naturally make Mexico a desirable neighbor.

Listen to what the director, Mr. Apted, and the star, Ben Barnes say. in the video below.. "Worse than Bahgdad" ... "Thousands of dead every weekend" .... "Headless bodies in the street" ... "terrrifying" ... They would have had to stay in military style compounds for their own safety. There were gun emplacements on the streets. They would have needed 24 hour body guards. Two of the three stars of this film are underage children!

He is wrong when he says that people didn't know much about it, even in America. We know here in the Southwestern United States of America, Mr. Apted. We've been screaming it from the rooftops! It's our government which denies the carnage and the danger. And the Mexican government, of course.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Watch Department of Homeland Security head and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano from 1:00 to 2:00 in this video lecture us about how wrong we are to enforce our own laws because "these young people" ... "show by the actions" ... that they have "the potential to be excellent citizens of our country".

No, they don't. The only way to demonstrate that they could indeed be excellent citizens of our country is if they go to their country of citizenship and enter legally. There is no acceptable compromise. Not if they were brought here before the age of 16 nor 16 minutes. No compromise. If we compromise on this, the flood will just become larger and large due to the violence in Mexico and the lure of a possibly better life north of the border. Mexico needs to clean up itself, secure its interior and borders, eliminate corruption, establish the rule of law. That is the only way.

You can also see the moronic statements of Dick Durbin and Luis Gutierrez. Both traitors in my estimation.

I found this video posted at the bottom of this posting at Borderland Beat. Watch it. All of it. It's a bit confusing unless you can understand what the 2 fellows doing the filming are saying. But, from the explanation provided in the comments at Borderland Beat, it seems that the undamaged vehicles you see at the beginning of the video, the trucks and buses, are clustering together in an effort to achieve safety in numbers. Later in the video you see vehicles which have been wrecked both accidentally and deliberately and then just abandoned. Other vechicles are destroyed and burned to block the roads.

It seems that the Government of Mexico is going after these repugnant murderers very hard. And, allegations are that the USA is helping them. Good.

Michoacan is not a border state. Rather, it is an illustration of what is happening inside Mexico. The place is falling apart. If this is not stopped, it will spread to all of Mexico and it will further impact our borders. You American pot heads and coke heads and other idiotic users of various other substances need to understand that this is the fruit of your drug use unless you are growing / making your own. Not that I approve of the use regardless of the source, but that's another issue entirely.

What makes no sense in the normal adult world is why Americans tolerate the drug use. Have we no shame?

Tennessee’s legislators plan to consider a bill next year styled after Arizona’s SB 1070, even though the state already has strict laws targeting illegal immigrants.

State Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Joe Carr, both Republicans, are preparing a bill that criminalizes illegal immigrants and authorizes local law enforcement authorities to detain “any person” suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

“You can’t deny how [illegal immigration] is affecting us, from education to healthcare to the judicial system to incarceration, and more importantly the number of jobs it’s taken away,” Ketron said.

Like Tennessee, other nearby states, including North Carolina and South Carolina, have expressed an interest in starting out the new legislative session in 2011 reviewing measures similar to the law in Arizona, the first in the nation to criminalize being in the country unlawfully.

Tennessee, where foreign-born people account for roughly four percent of the total population, already has restrictive measures that will take effect on Jan. 1.

The most controversial is SB 1141/HB 670, which requires local jails -- despite no training, funds, supervision or access to federal immigration databases -- to verify the immigration status of all those detained. There is also a measure that allows businesses to insist that employees speak only English for “security and efficiency.”

During the vehement debate over the implementation of SB 1070 in Arizona, a group of Tennessee legislators sent a letter to that state’s governor, Jan Brewer, praising her for signing the bill into law.

Recently, another Tennessee legislator, Republican Curry Todd, who supports strict immigration measures, gained notoriety when he said that illegal immigrants “multiply like rats.”

Todd later apologized for the comment, but maintains his opposition to illegal immigration.

Translated by Fox News Latino.

Yes, saying a population mutiplies like rats isn't very nice - unless it's true like the once-Christian country of Lebanon which is now a moslem country. Anyway, maybe "like bunnies" would have been less rude. Or, how about no analogy at all and just describing it literally. Why be insulting when the bare truth is ugly enough? The illegal immigrant population has far more children than the native born population and thus, like the once-Christian country of Lebanon which is now a moslem country, the native culture and / or population can be overwhelmed in the space of 40 years.

Friday, December 03, 2010

While President Obama, DHS Secretary Napalitano, and Secretary of State Clinton have said all this year that our border was more secure than ever, they knew that Mexico was less secure and more in danger of literally falling apart than ever. All the while they, and the administrations and previous Congress(es), have refused to build a fence.

Mexico is on the brink and our government has known it all along including while they were demonizing and suing Arizona for attempting to enforce federal law. Immigration is the only category of federal law which states, counties, cities, etc are not allowed to enforce - or is it that only Arizona is not allowed to enforce because we are the only ones trying to do so?

The US has lost confidence in the Mexican army's ability to win the country's drugs war, branding it slow, clumsy and no match for "sophisticated" narco-traffickers.

Classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks also reveal a growing sense of alarm within Mexico's government that time is running out in the battle against organised crime and that it could "lose" entire regions.

The memos detail blunders in the fight against drug cartels and a desperate search for a new strategy to save President Felipe Calderón's administration from a bloodsoaked fiasco.

The assessments, made in a cable to Washington earlier this year, are bleak contrast to Mexican insistence that the state is prevailing in a war declared by Calderón in 2006. Four years later drug-related violence has killed more than 28,000 people and brought cities such as Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana to the brink of anarchy, with mayors, police chiefs and ordinary people gunned down with impunity and beheadings shockingly common.

Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez, the undersecretary for governance, told US diplomats that "pervasive, debilitating fear" had infected even relatively safe parts of the country. "He expressed a real concern with 'losing' certain regions."

US diplomats painted a scathing picture of Mexico's armed forces, singling out the army as bureaucratic, parochial, outdated and unfit to combat drug trafficking organisations (DTOs).

"Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of. Official corruption is widespread, leading to a compartmentalized siege mentality among 'clean' law enforcement leaders and their lieutenants."

The cable laments that only 2% of those detained for organised crime-related offences were brought to trial and said the army was "incapable" of processing information and evidence for judicial cases. "It has taken a serious beating on human rights issues from international and domestic human rights organizations, who argue with considerable basis, in fact that the military is ill-equipped for a domestic policing role."

It was a stinging verdict on the decision of Calderón, a White House ally, to deploy tens of thousands of troops, especially in Ciudad Juárez where narcos ran rings around them.

"The DTOs are sophisticated players: they can wait out a military deployment; they have an almost unlimited human resource pool to draw from in the marginalised neighborhoods; and they can fan complaints about human rights violations to undermine any progress the military might make with hearts and minds."

The diplomats also criticised the "dysfunctionally low level of collaboration" between Mexican military and civilian authorities along the border.

They praised Mexico's navy as a nimbler force which took down the drug lord Arturo Beltrán Leyva but even that risked a downside of making the army, the navy's institutional rival, more defensive and risk-averse.

Privately, Gutierrez Fernandez admitted to US officials that Mexico bungled the early phase of the Mérida Initiative, a security pact between the US, Mexico and central America, by focusing too much on equipment rather than competent personnel and institutions.

"Gutierrez went on to say, however, that he now realizes there is not even time for the institution building to take hold in the remaining years of the Calderon administration." If there was no tangible success within 18 months the next government would have difficulty sustaining the drugs war, said the minister.

Gutierrez and Jorge Tello Péon, the national security system coordinator, said despite setbacks Mexico would "stay the course" and asked the Americans to aid a new strategy focusing on the most violent cities.

"If we could turn around Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and one other city such as Culiacán, it would solve 60% of the violence, and send a signal to the Mexican people that the war can be won," reported the cable. It urged Washington to back the strategy.

The US diplomats noted that Mexico's president had recognised the failure of army deployments and replaced troops with federal police. "Calderón has openly admitted to having a tough year … and contacts have told (political officers) that he has seemed 'down' in meetings."

Last month, in an interview with the BBC, Calderón insisted that as long as the US remained the biggest consumer of drugs in the world, the terror wrought by the drug cartels in Mexico would continue.

"They [the Americans] have a clear responsibility in this because they are providing the market for the drug dealers and the criminals," President Calderón said. "They need to do a lot more in terms of reducing the consumption of drugs and to stop the flow of weapons towards Mexico.

It's called a fence. A fence! You put up a fence and restrict the flow of everything in both directions. Anyone, like the former Governor of Arizona and current head of DHS, Napolitano, who says well, they'll just get a bigger ladder is either an idiot or something who wants the chaos here. I wonder if, in the face of a leak in the Hoover Dam, if she would say, well, it'll just spring a bigger leak someplace else.

I firmly believe that no fence will ever be built by this country unless we begin to endure a murder rate close to that of Mexico. That is an extremely high price to pay. Those of us with weaspons have a slight chance of protecting ourselves but many of these murders are random and from a distance since they are just letting the locals know that their government cannot protect them.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Happy Hanukah once again from me to all my Jewish friends and to my Christian friends who know their spiritual history. Last year I posted pictures of some menorahs I found interesting. I liked that so I found some more this year. I'm obviously partial to the more modern metal ones.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

I got home from the annual Thanksgiving trip to visit the last remaining members of the generation preceding mine on the paternal side of the family yesterday. Back pain keeps me awake now so sometime during the night I woke and turned on FNC and was able to watch a bit of Oliver North's War Stories (which isn't on often enough, if you ask me!). This episode was all about our Southern Border. It was quite good and well worth your time. There was a bit about the border patrol telling the crew to get out of a certain area and they seemed rather threatening to me. So, there you have it - the border patrol throwing American citizens out of American territory. I don't think that is their mandate.

With an onslaught of gruesome images and a death toll that rises daily, our 2,000-mile long southwest border truly has become a third front.

More than 29,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006. Our southern neighbors are living in a bloodbath created by vicious drug cartels battling to dominate smuggling routes into America worth upwards of $50 billion. Beheadings and mass murders are now an everyday, grim reality. Narco-terrorists have already infiltrated over 230 U.S. cities.

Oliver North and his "War Stories" team traveled to the states bordering this frontline to bring you the real story behind the war for the border.

From California's Pacific coast to the deserts of Arizona and the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas, we met with everyday Americans who say they're under siege and a Mexican journalist who was kidnapped and tortured by brutal drug lords vowing to kill him.

We joined federal agents as they hunted down cartel operatives living deep inside America. And, unbelievable as it may seem, visited parts of our country that are so dangerous, they're off limits to American citizens.

When Fox News special correspondent Lt. Col. Oliver North set his sights on covering the border security crisis, he turned to Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu for perspective.

A documentary entitled “War Stories on the Border: The Third Front” outlines the dangers of drug violence in Mexico and the threat it poses in the United States.

This is how the producers of the show describe the situation in Mexico: “More than 29,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006. Our southern neighbors are living in a bloodbath created by vicious drug cartels battling to dominate smuggling routes into America worth upwards of $50 billion.”

The documentary featured Dever, who has been sheriff of the border county since 1996, and Babeu, who has made it a priority to address the illegal immigration problem.

Sheriff Dever said, “So much of the coverage we see on illegal immigration is tarnished by the open borders crowd who fail to understand this is about national security not politics. This documentary has given the nation a vivid picture of the dangers we face.”

Babeu’s Pinal County county lies between the border and the urban areas that are attractive to drug and human smugglers. As a result, the citizens he serves are threatened by the perils of living in an area that serves as a corridor for dangerous smugglers.

Sheriff Babeu said, “It was a pleasure to assist in the making of this documentary and bring the dangers we face in Arizona to a national audience.”

BorderSheriffs.com was formed to defend law enforcement against lawsuits attempting to prevent enforcement of Arizona’s SB1070. The organization was also formed to give law enforcement a much-needed voice on the issue.

...drug violence has painted Monterrey with the look and feel of the gritty border 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north as two former allies, the Gulf and Zetas gangs, fight for control of Mexico's third-largest – and wealthiest – city.

The deterioration happened nearly overnight, laying bare issues that plague the entire country: a lack of credible policing and the Mexican habit of looking the other way at the drug trade as long as it was orderly and peaceful. (This is what so-called legalization advocates fail to recognize, imo - Kirls)

"To a certain extent, we saw ourselves as a privileged city and very isolated from Mexico's problems," said Blanca Trevino, Monterrey-based president and CEO of Softtek, the largest information technology consulting firm in Latin America. "The violence hit us because we were not accustomed to having it and therefore to handling it. Now we live in a sort of psychosis."

The Mexican government announced Wednesday it is ordering a significant boost in military troops and federal police in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon, home to Monterrey.

The two states are under the heaviest attack since the cartel split earlier this year. Both have witnessed increasingly horrific violence spilling into daily life and claiming civilians, while politicians and journalists are either silenced or killed.

Earlier this month, residents fleeing gunbattles in Tamaulipas' once-picturesque town of Ciudad Mier ended up in Mexico's first drug-war refugee shelter in a nearby town, only to duck bullets from a gunbattle there.

Monterrey was used to being Mexico's definition of opportunity. The city of 4 million "regios" – a nickname for Monterrey residents that means "people of the regal mountains" – represented the future as money poured into northern Mexico from free trade and the opening of scores of assembly plants.

The city's many CEOs drove their own luxury cars unaccompanied to the trendiest Japanese restaurant or the top spot for roasted goat, the state's specialty, in the wealthy enclave of San Pedro Garza Garcia.

Some drug lords and their families retreated to the safety of Monterrey as well. In the home of the country's industrial heavyweights, including the world's third-largest cement maker, Cemex, and bottling giant Femsa, they could easily blend in with executives showing off their wealth.

Then-leader of the Gulf cartel, Juan Garcia Abrego, was arrested in the nearby town of Juarez in 1996. Two years later, a U.S. sting led to criminal charges of money laundering against employees at three Monterrey-based Mexican banks.

Despite sporadic violence and the known presence of drug traffickers, the city enjoyed a tranquility that gave it a provincial feel.

That started to change four years ago, when the Sinaloa cartel began battling the Gulf cartel for a piece of Monterrey's lucrative domestic drug market. The violence subsided after the cartels reportedly agreed to share the turf.

With the Gulf-Zeta split, the downfall was swift – "extremely so," in the words of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual – for a city with huge American interests that in some ways identifies more closely with the U.S. than Mexico.

"It's part of the risk of accommodating or allowing criminal groups to be able to live and operate quote `safely' in an area for the sake of peace," Pascual told The Associated Press. "But then this rupture occurs and turns into a massive battle."

As in much of Mexico, there was no viable law enforcement to counter the onslaught. The Zetas control the local police, Pascual said. Other police forces aligned with the Gulf cartel in the fight against them.

About half of the 750 police officers in Monterrey have been fired on suspicion of links to organized crime.

"Rather than becoming part of the solution, they become part of the problem," Pascual said. "When criminal groups want to contest one another for territory, if you don't have strong local law enforcement capable of immediately reacting and putting that down, then the violence has the capacity to continue."

More than 500 people have died in drug violence in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 56 slayings for all of 2009, according to tallies kept by the city's El Norte newspaper.

Residents are used to having their daily routines interrupted by carjackings and "narcobloqueos" – roadblocks with stolen vehicles designed to keep police and soldiers at bay as the cartels do their business.

They drive simple cars and avoid night clubs and bars and go to parties with their pajamas, ready to spend the night in case it's too dangerous to venture home.

In March, two students at the prestigious Monterrey Tech University, Mexico's equivalent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died when they were caught in a gunfight between soldiers and gunmen outside the campus.

Five months later, the U.S. State Department ordered diplomats to remove their children from the area after a shooting outside the American Foundation School, a private school attended by many Americans and the children of some of Monterrey's wealthiest families. Two security guards working for the Femsa bottling company died in the gunbattle.

The city's businesspeople are now becoming the targets of extortion and kidnappings as drug traffickers look for other ways to make money. Common criminals also take advantage of the chaos. Now almost everyone knows someone who has been a victim of a crime.

The traditional weekend shopping trips to McAllen or Laredo, Texas, have stopped – it's too risky to drive along highways patrolled by gunmen. Those who still travel to South Padre Island, where the rich own weekend condos, do it by airplane.

The business community published a letter in national newspapers as far back as August demanding President Felipe Calderon and Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina send more troops. Now it will get its wish, though the government didn't detail how many would be sent, citing security.

But Aldo Fasci Zuazua thinks regios can make the difference. The former state public safety secretary and assistant attorney general is helping to lead a peace movement to galvanize people to stand up to the cartels.

"In Italy, in Colombia, things calmed down among the cartels, among the mafia, when people took to the streets and said, `Enough!'" he said.

Friday, November 19, 2010

My computer troubles are resolved! While it took more than 4 days for the laptop to reach Dell for the warranty service, they fixed it and shipped it back the same day! Awesome! I'd say that extra $$ for the warranty against accidental damage was worth it. The laptop fell and smacked on the floor. While it only fell about a foot, the keyboard was damaged. Dell replaced it with a very nice keyboard indeed (no crumbs! LOL). Seriously, this keyboard is better than the original.

I hope to be back to posting about the holey sponge that is our southern border this weekend.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

As I said the other day, I'm having computer troubles. Fortunately, it's still under warranty. Unfortunately, I have to ship it off to be serviced. So, I'll be without my own laptop for a while. Possibly through Thanksgiving. I'll try to keep posting from the work laptop during off hours but I'm not sure how that will go. Anyway, do your best to stay informed and remember that we are being invaded and it's just a matter of time before the violence south of the border is more common north of the border.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Today is the 235th Birthdy of the United States Marines. Many members of my family have been Marines including my Pops, an Uncle who was one of the "Chosin Few", another uncle who was AWOL and up there looking for his brother, and my young nephews right now.

Following U.S. Marine tradition, the oldest Marine takes the first bite of birthday cake decorated with the U.S. Marine logo and then passes it on to the youngest Marine, which denotes carrying on the tradition of the Marine Corps from the old corps to the new.

According to the U.S. Marine website, this celebration is taking place in many other places worldwide.

And let's not forget why the Marines were created. Not one penny in tribute. We know what that tribute was...a form of jizya (or whatever the barbarian moslems call the it).

Gerard W. Gawalt is the manuscript specialist for early American history in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.

Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. In fact, the Roman Catholic Religious Order of Mathurins had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates.

Before the United States obtained its independence in the American Revolution, 1775-83, American merchant ships and sailors had been protected from the ravages of the North African pirates by the naval and diplomatic power of Great Britain. British naval power and the tribute or subsidies Britain paid to the piratical states protected American vessels and crews. During the Revolution, the ships of the United States were protected by the 1778 alliance with France, which required the French nation to protect "American vessels and effects against all violence, insults, attacks, or depredations, on the part of the said Princes and States of Barbary or their subjects."

After the United States won its independence in the treaty of 1783, it had to protect its own commerce against dangers such as the Barbary pirates. As early as 1784 Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them. Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of twenty-one people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.

Thomas Jefferson, United States minister to France, opposed the payment of tribute, as he later testified in words that have a particular resonance today. In his autobiography Jefferson wrote that in 1785 and 1786 he unsuccessfully "endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, articles of a special confederation." Jefferson argued that "The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace." Jefferson prepared a detailed plan for the interested states. "Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association," Jefferson remembered, but there were "apprehensions" that England and France would follow their own paths, "and so it fell through."

Paying the ransom would only lead to further demands, Jefferson argued in letters to future presidents John Adams, then America's minister to Great Britain, and James Monroe, then a member of Congress. As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, "I acknolege [sic] I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro' the medium of war." Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates, Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: "The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . . Every national citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." "From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their tenaciousness of their money," Jefferson added in a December 26, 1786, letter to the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles, "it will be more easy to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to bribe them."

Jefferson's plan for an international coalition foundered on the shoals of indifference and a belief that it was cheaper to pay the tribute than fight a war. The United States's relations with the Barbary states continued to revolve around negotiations for ransom of American ships and sailors and the payment of annual tributes or gifts. Even though Secretary of State Jefferson declared to Thomas Barclay, American consul to Morocco, in a May 13, 1791, letter of instructions for a new treaty with Morocco that it is "lastly our determination to prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form, and to any people whatever," the United States continued to negotiate for cash settlements. In 1795 alone the United States was forced to pay nearly a million dollars in cash, naval stores, and a frigate to ransom 115 sailors from the dey of Algiers. Annual gifts were settled by treaty on Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli.

When Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli's demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. The pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States. Although as secretary of state and vice president he had opposed developing an American navy capable of anything more than coastal defense, President Jefferson dispatched a squadron of naval vessels to the Mediterranean. As he declared in his first annual message to Congress: "To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean. . . ."

The American show of force quickly awed Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. The humiliating loss of the frigate Philadelphia and the capture of her captain and crew in Tripoli in 1803, criticism from his political opponents, and even opposition within his own cabinet did not deter Jefferson from his chosen course during four years of war. The aggressive action of Commodore Edward Preble (1803-4) forced Morocco out of the fight and his five bombardments of Tripoli restored some order to the Mediterranean. However, it was not until 1805, when an American fleet under Commodore John Rogers and a land force raised by an American naval agent to the Barbary powers, Captain William Eaton, threatened to capture Tripoli and install the brother of Tripoli's pasha on the throne, that a treaty brought an end to the hostilities. Negotiated by Tobias Lear, former secretary to President Washington and now consul general in Algiers, the treaty of 1805 still required the United States to pay a ransom of $60,000 for each of the sailors held by the dey of Algiers, and so it went without Senatorial consent until April 1806. Nevertheless, Jefferson was able to report in his sixth annual message to Congress in December 1806 that in addition to the successful completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, "The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship."

In fact, it was not until the second war with Algiers, in 1815, that naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States. European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s. However, international piracy in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters declined during this time under pressure from the Euro-American nations, who no longer viewed pirate states as mere annoyances during peacetime and potential allies during war.

For anyone interested in the further pursuit of information about America's first unconventional, international war in the primary sources, the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress holds manuscript collections of many of the American participants, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (see the George Washington Papers), William Short, Edward Preble, Thomas Barclay, James Madison, James Simpson, James Leander Cathcart, William Bainbridge, James Barron, John Rodgers, Ralph Izard, and Albert Gallatin.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Borderland Beat has a very interesting article up describing the take-down of Gulf Cartel boss Tony Tormenta. Over 600 Mexican Navy Marines, 3 helicopters,and 17 armooured vehicles were needed to take this freak out of the gene pool. While this operation caused chaos and fear among the population of Matamoros including the disruption of cell phone service, it was necessary to take this nut out and to let the rest of these crazies know what their fate will be. This is a war and collatoral damage (civilian casualties) always occur in war. Mexico must continue to take control of its own territory. Mexicans must have a level of safety which will allow them to live normal lives with their families and friends, do business in a secure environment all governed by the rule of law. The corruption in all levels of the Mexican government better be rooted out too or this will all be for naught.

You potheads and supporters of legalizing pot share in the responsibility for all this bloodshed. If pot is legalized, it will flow across the border inamounts which will make that 130 tons (260,000 pounds) found recently look like a drop in the bucket. You think local growers will be able to stand against the cartels? Hell, the government of Mexico can barely stand.

A total of 660 members of the Navy of Mexico participated in the operation yesterday which resulted in the death of Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias "Tony Tormenta", a high ranking kingpin of the Gulf Drug Cartel.

The Secretary of the Navy said in a statement that a total of 660 military marines were deployed in the operation, and of these, 150 were in the first circle of action, supported by three helicopters and 17 armored vehicles.

In the gunfight four gunmen were killed that allegedly belonged to the inner circle of protection to "Tony Tormenta." Also killed were three marines while four others were wounded, said the Navy said in a statement.

A source explained that Mexican authorities had been following the trail of "Tony Tormenta" for the last six months and on Friday they received his location in a downtown neighborhood of Matamoros, a city bordering the United States, but when the first group of marines arrived, they were met with automatic gunfire and grenades.

This conflict unleashed a fierce gun battle which lasted for more than two hours, until the capo "Tony Tormenta", a native of Matamoros and at the age 48, finally fell.

Friday's daylong gunfights throughout Matamoros between cartel hit men and Mexican soldiers and marines plunged the city into chaos and panic, witnesses said, as armed men plowed through streets on the backs of pickup trucks.

Residents rushed in helter-skelter traffic to get home; many remained trapped in their offices. Cellphone service went down, further stoking fears as bursts of high-caliber weaponry could be heard for hours. International bridges into Texas were closed for a time.

Most of the fighting barely made a ripple in national news here in Mexico because local reporters in Tamaulipas, out of fear or corruption, have been trained to ignore cartel activities. Only when a journalist for a Matamoros newspaper was killed in the gun battle did the news begin to trickle out.

A source said that "Tony Tormenta" was one of the leaders to take control of the Gulf cartel in 2003, which has its influence on the east coast of Mexico, after his brother, Osiel Cardenas Guillen was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States.

The Mexican government considers the death of the Gulf cartel kingpin as a "significant" step in dismantling organized criminal groups "that have caused a lot of suffering to the people of our country," said the national security spokesman, Alejandro Poire.

In a press release read to the media, Poire congratulated the members of the Armed Forces who participated in the operation and expressed his deep condolences over the death of the soldiers "killed in the line of duty."

The Gulf cartel and the Zetas, once allies, have been disputing for the last couple of years in a bloody war for control of drug trafficking turf, which has left a bloodbath in its aftermath.

So far this year more than 10,000 people have been killed related to organized crime.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Americans who think they are safe vacationing in Mexico because they are just visitors / tourists and not connected to smuggling need to understand that mistakes happen. Akin to the random shooting of a child asleep in their bed in Compton in a gang hit but on a much larger, more hideous and ruthless scale. A month ago, 20 men were kidnapped in Acapulco and never heard from again. Investigators think they have located them - in a mass grave in Acapulco; possible victims of a case of mistaken identity. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. And, frankly, if you are an American of Mexican descent or look like you might be, I believe you are in far more danger of these mistaken identity murders in Mexico. There are plenty of other beautiful places to vacation in the USA and other areas of the world. How about Alaska or Hawaii? If you insist on a Latin inspired locale, then why not Puerto Rico? If you simply must leave the country, then Australia and New Zealand are far more preferable than the ever increasing death toll of Mexico which currently stands at 10,000 so far in 2010.

MEXICO CITY - Investigators finished removing 18 bodies from a mass grave near Acapulco on Thursday amid speculation that the victims may have been killed by mistake.

Prosecutors and police said forensic teams had not yet identified the bodies, but it was possible they had uncovered the remains of 20 men from the western state of Michoacan who were kidnapped a month ago in Acapulco and have not been seen since.

Authorities were led to the site by a video posted on YouTube by a drug-trafficking organization and by anonymous calls to police. The video shows two men answering questions from an off-camera interrogator and apparently being forced to confess that they killed the men from Michoacan and buried them near the village of Tunzingo south of Acapulco.

In the video, the two men on camera say the killing was over lucrative drug sales and trafficking routes in the area.

According to reporters at the scene, the bodies of two men resembling those on the video were found beside the mass grave near a sign reading: "The people they killed are buried here.''

A group calling itself CIDA, an acronym that officials say means Independent Cartel of Acapulco, claimed responsibility for the video and the information that led authorities to the grave site.

The families of the men say they were mechanics who had saved up for a weekend fling in the resort city and had nothing to do with drug trafficking. Investigations by police also suggest that the men had no criminal records or ties.

Mexican drug cartels and shadowy groups of narco-vigilantes have begun to post incriminating videos of forced confessions on the Internet, subsuming the role of the state - and sometimes judge, jury and executioner.

"This is a strategy they have learned from the Islamic terrorist organizations and brought to Mexico," said Martin Barron Cruz, a researcher at the National Institute of Criminal Science in Mexico City.

He said the Internet offers the criminal groups an anonymous tool, without rules, and a powerful medium for propaganda. It not only allows the warring groups to blame one another - rightly or wrongly - for crimes, but it also challenges the authority of the state by making the criminals the instruments of vigilante justice.

Barron suggested that the drug mafias are aping techniques used by the Mexican government, which scores public relations points by parading suspects before the cameras - even if many of those arrested are never formally charged and their cases fall apart.

In recent weeks, criminal gangs have posted videos of men being forced to say that an assassination squad is operating under the control of a prison warden - who was later fired - and posted accusations by the brother of the former attorney general in the northern state of Chihuahua. In that video, top prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez is accused, along with the governor and a military general, of working for the local cartel and orchestrating political murders.

The newspaper El Diario in Ciudad Juarez reported Thursday that Mario Gonzalez, the brother of the ex-prosecutor, was found dead and had been buried alongside three or four unidentified bodies north of Chihuahua City.

The bodies found near Acapulco were badly decomposed and in a shallow grave in a coconut grove, said Enrique Gil Mercado, a special state prosecutor. The families of the missing men are heading toward the city to help with the identifications.

Sources in the Mexican military told the Milenio news organization that evidence suggested the bodies were those of the missing men from Michoacan, though that could not be confirmed.

If nearly 50 people had been killed in a shootout just feet from the border causing all bridges over the Rio Grande to be closed, you'd think it would be breathlessly reported. 30 dead in a shootout at noon and 17 more in a second shootout near city hall! Among the dead is a reporter and a cartel murderer known as "Tony Tormenta". The reporter seems to have gotten in the way of the soldiers fighting the war against the murderers.

Update: Finally a report on ABCNews Radio Network but only about 5 reported dead - the criminal and some law enforcement. Not a word about the real number, that it was near Matamoros City Hall, nor that it was just over the border.

Gunfire broke out in Matamoros Friday, leaving at least 47 people dead and causing the closure of all three bridges between Brownsville and Mexico.

The fighting reportedly involved members of the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas and Mexican federal police and military

University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College closed the Fort Brown campus and moved the soccer games scheduled for Friday night to the Brownsville Sports Park.

Gunfire was reported in Matamoros in a number of incidents beginning Friday morning, with at least 30 people dead by around noon, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition that his name not be used.

In the afternoon, a major confrontation near city hall killed at least 17 more people, the source said.

One of those killed around midday was identified as Carlos Alberto Guajardo, 37, a reporter for the newspaper El Expreso. Sources with knowledge of the incident said Guajardo apparently was killed by soldiers who were chasing narcotics traffickers.

From the Arizona Capitol Times, which once interviewed me after I spoke to the Arizona Legislative Memorial Mall Commission (against the hideous and lying AZ 911 Memorial), reported that Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (author/sponsor of SB1070) was elected President of the Arizona Senate the day after Arizona Republicans literally swept statewide positions to get a supermajority in both our state House and Senate.

Sen. Russell Pearce will lead the Arizona Senate next year after colleagues elected him to be president of the chamber during a closed-door meeting Nov. 3.

Pearce defeated Sen. Steve Pierce and Senators-elect Steve Yarbrough and John McComish. All four had been rounding up votes for months in anticipation of the leadership elections. Until now, it wasn’t clear which candidate had the edge, although many sources were saying Yarbrough appeared to have the most support prior to the Nov. 2 elections.

Republicans gained new seats in nearly every facet of Arizona government, sweeping the statewide positions and amassing what appears to be a veto-proof supermajority in the state House and Senate.

Many legislators have said they want fixing the budget and jumpstarting the economy to be the primary focus next year, and they have indicated that going through another contentious round of immigration legislation might be a distraction.

The incoming set of senators also chose Scott Bundgaard, a former legislator, as Majority Leader. Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Pierce remains as the Majority Whip.

Senate President Bob Burns presided over the meeting and left when the incoming president was chosen.

Burns said they went through three or four rounds of voting before a majority settled on Pearce.

Pearce and his leadership team will have their hands full next year.

They will have to fix a budget deficit that grew substantially after the Nov. 2 general election.

Voters rejected two ballot proposals that would have swept money from voter approved programs into the state’s general fund. The failure of the measures punched a $450 million hole in this year’s budget.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to fix that deficit this year or wait for the new set of lawmakers to take their oath next year before tackling the problem.

Another challenge will be to jumpstart a struggling economy, as revenue collections remain sluggish and economists warn of a slow recovery.

Lawmakers are considering passing a “jobs” bill or an “economic package.”

Pearce joined the Legislature in 2001. He was elected to the Senate two years ago.

He has served as chairman of the Appropriations committees in both chambers.

Pearce has a deep background in law enforcement. He was a chief deputy with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for nearly two decades. He also has served as director for Arizona’s Motor Vehicle Division as director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials helped an illegal immigrant thief escape across the border. They literally escorted him across the border after flying him to El Paso on your dime. All to escape the 12 years in prison he was facing.

And the Jefferson County District Attorney is fed up. And you should be too. If you're not furious, you're not paying attention or you don't support the rule of law. Like Progressives.

And the perps sister, who put up her house for the bond, won't even loose that house (even though it was used to circumvent justice) because stupid open-borders Colorado passed a law that prevents forfeiture when suspects leave the country. Gee, I wonder why they would do that? Nearly 100% of country skipping perps are illegal aliens so they just hop back across the border and their relatives don't have to forfeit the bond. This is outrageous. Coloradans, what the hell are you thinking??

An illegal immigrant charged with stealing an 81-year-old Wheat Ridge man's trailer fled the country with unusual accomplices: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

"They are complicit in his escape from justice," Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey said Wednesday of the federal agency's role in helping Damacio Torres- Ochoa, 33, leave the country.

According to Storey, ICE flew the felony defendant to El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 19 and walked him across the border to freedom.

Storey didn't learn what had happened until Torres-Ochoa failed to appear at a Monday court hearing. He was facing up to 12 years in prison.

"I pretty much have had enough of this," Storey said. "This kind of sticks in our craw."

Other things that contributed to Torres-Ochoa's release included a judge dropping his bond — a loophole created for bail bond companies by the Colorado legislature when illegal immigrants skip bail — and bad communication between federal and state lawmen. Storey vowed to attack each problem.

After he "self-deported," Torres- Ochoa's bail was raised to $250,000 in cash, Storey said.

The case began Feb. 24 after Robert Joseph Wallace, 81, ran outside when he heard someone stealing his trailer. Torres-Ochoa allegedly was towing the trailer away when Wallace shot his alleged accomplice, Alvaro Cardona, 28, in the face, blinding him and causing a serious brain injury.

Wallace was charged in the shooting, and months later, Torres-Ochoa and Cardona were charged with theft from an at-risk victim.

Storey asked for a high bail because Torres-Ochoa was in the country illegally and was considered a flight risk. Bail was set at $100,000. Jefferson County Judge Thomas Vance later dropped the bail to $27,500, Storey said.

Torres-Ochoa's sister put up her house as collateral, and Rosalie Montoya of Reliable Bail Bonds put up the bond on Oct. 4, Storey said. But because ICE had a hold on Torres-Ochoa, ICE picked him up two days later and held him until he was transported to Texas.

ICE initiated deportation against Torres-Ochoa without notifying Jefferson County officials. ICE officials could not be reached for comment.

Wallace pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of attempted reckless manslaughter and illegal discharge of a firearm into an occupied motor vehicle.

Cardona has been deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Although Torres-Ochoa skipped bail, Reliable Bail Bonds likely won't forfeit the bond because the Colorado legislature passed a measure in 2007 in which bond companies were exempt from forfeiture when suspects flee the country.

Three years ago, when the legislature passed the exemption, Storey wrote a letter to county and district presiding judges asking them to make sure that bails were set high in such cases because of the flight risk with illegal immigrants.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

OK, while I can't believe that Harry Reid didn't lose except by cheating, Arizona at least did fairly well. Ruth McClung and Jesse Kelly didn't win but they came very close and I expect them to be a force to be reckoned with in the future of Arizona.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

I was at the polling location 15 minutes before it opened. When it did open at 6am, there were at least 30 people waiting to vote. I hope that indicates a strong turnout.

When they handed me the "I voted today" sticker, I asked for a second one and ended up with 2 each of 2 different designs. So, I made good use of them...I used them to seal up retirement cards for Harry and Nancy. The fact that the postmark will say "Phoenix" is wonderful. The idea came from Mike Broomhead host of the weekday 4-7pm show on KFYI.

I just heard Rush on his morning update close with "Annoy the bastards today, folks". I'm doing my part!

Yep, that's my writing complete with mistakes and all.

And look! I cared enough to send the very best!

Chose a nice patriotic stamp.

I used both my "I Voted Today" stickers and added the little flag sticker in the center for good measure.

Get out there and vote! I'll be going to the polls right when they open.

I posted how I intended to vote the other day. Read it here. Pretty much straight Republican but I'm writing in Ian Gilyeat for Senate and for the Deer Valley School Board, I'm voting for Mike Gregoire and Christy Agosta because Kelly Gorman must not be on the board due to his statement that Charter and private schools are "threat to district enrollment". Competition should be an incentive to make your school district better and not seen as a threat.

Arizona's congressional seats are likely to swing heavily Republican this Tuesday, giving conservatives a possible seven-to-one edge over Democrats in the state if all four contested races there change parties.

At issue for Democrats is the controversial SB 1070, a law that allows the state to enforce federal illegal immigration statutes.

Poll numbers in the First and Fifth Congressional Districts show voters clearly leaning toward the Republican candidates. In AZ-1, incumbent Anne Kirkpatrick, a Nancy Pelosi loyalist, is down seven points to dentist and political newcomer Paul Gosar. In AZ-5, incumbent Harry Mitchell, Tempe's former mayor, is down four points to Republican David Schweikert. Mitchell defeated Schweikert two years ago.

Mitchell and Kirkpatrick have both been outspoken against SB 1070 and are now paying the price. Both also supported bills to legalize illegal immigrants in Arizona - in stark contrast to their opponents.

Arizona State University polling expert Bruce Merrill says the Republican 1070 stance is driving independent voters to their side. "The independents are breaking about 60-40 in terms of supporting a much tougher stand on illegal immigration," Merrill said.

Poll numbers show the other two districts are too close to predict, and could go either way. In the Seventh Congressional District, three-term incumbent Raul Grijalva could lose to a twenty-eight year old scientist with no political background. Ruth McClung, who's mother runs her campaign, could defeat Grijalva because he wanted businesses and tourists to boycott his own state.

The Eighth District has 114 miles of border with Mexico. Its incumbent Gabrielle Giffords also opposed SB1070 and favored legalization - the exact opposite of her opponent, former marine Jesse Kelly.

What will happen in Arizona may be a case of voters' revenge. While many Democrats, including President Barack Obama, criticized SB1070, a good number of Arizona voters appear to be for it - and many may be critical independents. "We have had a tremendous increase in independents [in the state]," Merrill said. "So they almost hold the balance of power in Arizona."